Past and Present
by AArredondo02
Summary: Based on the Revenge TV show episode, "Duress", this story focuses more on the background and history of the Hamptons' top bad guys, Conrad and Victoria Grayson


**Friday, January 13, 2012**

**PAST AND PRESENT REVENGE DURESS EPISODE **

**I would like to thank "Revenge" creator Mike Kelley, Phillip Noyce, Elle Triedman, Jamie Babbit, and the rest of the production of the show, including writers, costume designers, set designers, and so on. Terry and Albert this is for you due to your support and inspiration.**

**Here are backgrounds on Conrad Grayson, Victoria Grayson, and Grayson Global.**

**Conrad Grayson**

Conrad Grayson's Pre-Revenge Background

Conrad Grayson was born into a wealthy family. His grandfather, Donald Grayson, founded the family's original company, Grayson Enterprises, at the age of 22 with only an 11th grade education. Grayson Enterprises would reach into a circle of overlapping areas: land, industry, lumber, insurance, transportation, magazines, and building and loan companies. Donald and his wife, Helen, had a son, Edward, Conrad's father. Edward was the first Grayson to graduate from high school and go to college. To make his own way in the world without the help of his father and Grayson Enterprises, Edward founded a hedge fund, Grayson Global, and married a socialite, Gwyneth Van Buren, Conrad's mother. The Van Burens, an old moneyed family, had owned and operated Van Buren Shipping for many, many decades. Edward and Gwyneth's son, Conrad, became the first Grayson to earn his MBA from Harvard Business School and went to work for his father, Conrad, at Grayson Global. During the late seventies and early eighties, Conrad found true love with his first wife, wealthy socialite Elizabeth Lockley Grayson, heiress to the vast Lockley Enterprises empire. The company of Elizabeth's family, Lockley Enterprises, had a rich history of their own. Elizabeth's powerful and wealthy family in New York for decades made their money on Wall Street. They were investing in the stock market and buying up shares of certain firms in New York in terms of marketing firms in addition to buying up an advertising agency in New York by the name of CBA, especially doing that during the Stock Market Crash of 1929 with everyone going bankrupt. Meanwhile, the Lockleys were getting richer by investing in the retail business in New York with Macy's The business conglomerate would evolve into Lockley Enterprise. Lockley Enterprises was involved in the marketing/finance business, but they were the corporate raiders of New York. Through hostile takeovers, Lockley was buying up controlling interests of hotels right out from under the hotel owners, buying the shopping malls & department outlets down there, and as well as having a huge subsidiary of their company called Lockley Magazine, a magazine company they had owned and operated, and it was based out of New York. New York City to be exact located on Wall Street and the Lockleys, in terms of property, had bought up most of the hotels in New York, as well as the major shopping malls in New York, where they would own and operate, and as well they had a summer home in the Hamptons, and globally, had another subsidiary of their company, Lockley Industries which was a huge subsidiary of Lockley Enterprises. As well, Lockley Industries was a marketing company based out of Madrid as that was where it was located, and Lockley Industries was a company that specialized not just in marketing/finance, but also in advertising, with cosmetics being their biggest field where they had made the bulk of their fortune in Madrid aside from their fashion department, and they had their mansion in Madrid.

After they married, Conrad and Elizabeth went ahead with constructing a 24,000 square feet summer beach house on prized Hamptons land known as Grayson Manor. Elizabeth was the reigning Queen of the Hamptons social scene even before her protege, Victoria Harper Grayson, came into their lives. A very young socialite from a wealthy family, Victoria, was hired to be not only Elizabeth's assistant, but also her chief party planner. One could say that Victoria was the Ashley Davenport of her day. In 1986, Victoria lured Conrad into having an affair and even suggested to him that he should allow her wealthy father's investment in Grayson Global. Conrad and Elizabeth divorced, and Elizabeth took away the Lockley Enterprises account from Grayson Global but also their young children. Conrad and Victoria married soon after that, and their son, Daniel, was born. Daniel would be endowed with a $500 million dollar trust fund just like his half-sister, Charlotte, several years later. Victoria went to work at Grayson Global as Conrad's Executive Assistant and became part of a money laundering scheme involving terrorists with her father, Victor Harper, who was a Grayson Global client.

Fast Forward

Currently, Conrad Grayson owns a shipping company, a cosmetics company, a manufacturing company, and a financial corporation. In terms of bank accounts Conrad Grayson holds, he has a Swiss bank account, a Grand Cayman bank account, a French bank account, a bank account in New York, a London bank account, a German bank account, and a Los Angeles bank account, where in all of these accounts; most of his wealth has accumulated over the years. In terms of businesses, he has his own corporation Grayson Enterprises which is a multibillion-dollar conglomerate that is known all over the world for being a large corporation with varied interests like owning a car company out in Asia, preferably in Tokyo, Japan, and a drilling company that they operate out of the Southern United States, preferably in Texas, where with these two companies the one in Tokyo and the one in Texas is where they get most of their wealth. In terms of divisions G.E. has, they have their own media division Grayson Communications, a fashion company Grayson Couture, a shipping division Grayson Shipping and their manufacturing division Grayson Manufacturing. In terms of land Conrad Grayson owns a lot of land in the U.S. in terms of in the States owning many buildings and condos not just in New York but also in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit, Texas and also in Florida too. In terms of offices G.E. owns, they have offices all over the world not just in the US in LA, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Texas, Florida, but also in Washington D.C. they have an office there or they will when they start building over there. They also have offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, London, Rome, Moscow, Frankfurt, Mexico City and they are thinking about expanding into Argentina also. In addition to his other assets in Grayson Global, Conrad Grayson is worth $4.7 billion dollars.

Conrad Grayson's Assets

Conrad Grayson owns a shipping company, a cosmetics company, a manufacturing company, and a financial corporation. In terms of bank accounts Conrad Grayson holds, he has a Swiss bank account, a Grand Cayman bank account, a French bank account, a bank account in New York, a London bank account, a German bank account, and a Los Angeles bank account, where in all of these accounts; most of his wealth has accumulated over the years. In terms of businesses, he has his own corporation Grayson Enterprises which is a multibillion-dollar conglomerate that is known all over the world for being a large corporation with varied interests like owning a car company out in Asia, preferably in Tokyo, Japan, and a drilling company that they operate out of the Southern United States, preferably in Texas, where with these two companies the one in Tokyo and the one in Texas is where they get most of their wealth. In terms of divisions G.E. has, they have their own media division Grayson Communications, a fashion company Grayson Couture, a shipping division Grayson Shipping and their manufacturing division Grayson Manufacturing. In terms of land Conrad Grayson owns a lot of land in the U.S. in terms of in the States owning many buildings and condos not just in New York but also in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit, Texas and also in Florida too. In terms of offices G.E. owns, they have offices all over the world not just in the US in LA, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Texas, Florida, but also in Washington D.C. they have an office there or they will when they start building over there. They also have offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, London, Rome, Moscow, Frankfurt, Mexico City and they are thinking about expanding into Argentina also. In addition to his other assets in Grayson Global, Conrad Grayson is worth $4.7 billion dollars.

In terms of hedge funds Conrad Grayson (Henry Czerny) has, he has an equity hedge fund, a relative value hedge fund, an event driven hedge fund, a global macro hedge fund and a managed futures hedge fund. In terms of what kinds of hedge funds he can have are one in a shipping company, a cosmetics Company, a manufacturing company, and a financial corporation. Grayson Global is a financial corporation, a multi-billion dollar company which, is a conglomerate, and in terms of other businesses they own, they own many telecommunications companies in Europe, but mostly in North America preferably like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Washington, Boston, Detroit, just to name a few and holdings they have, they have holdings in a shipping magnate company by the name of Aero Venture Shipping and have investments in a magazine called In Style and assets they own, they have their own retail chain of shopping malls in the U.S. preferably in Los Angeles called Grayson's, and subsidiaries they own, they own their own subsidiary Mason Industries, which is a daughter company of their parent company Grayson Global, and in stocks Grayson Global has, they have many stocks especially on the stock market in car companies such as Ford, Toyota, and Nissan, but also have Swiss bearer bonds and have offices in any country you can expect them to have and in terms of corporate divisions/divisions/subsidiaries any you would expect them to have, and in terms of land/properties/real estate have many villas and ranches but have their 2 mansions in New York and in Paris. In terms of bank accounts Conrad Grayson owns, he has a Swiss bank account, Grand Cayman bank account, French bank account, a bank account in New York, a London bank account, a German bank account, and a Los Angeles bank account, where in these accounts most of his wealth has accumulated over the years. In terms of businesses, he has his own corporation Grayson Enterprises, which is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate that is known all over the world for being a business only type company but they have other businesses they own like a car company out in Asia preferably in Tokyo, Japan and a drilling company that they own out in the Southern United States, preferably in Texas, where with these 2 companies the one in Tokyo and the one in Texas is where they get most of their wealth. In terms of divisions G.E. has, they have their media division Grayson Communications, the parent company of In Style, their fashion company Grayson Couture, shipping division Grayson Shipping, the parent company of Aero Venture Shipping, and their manufacturing division Grayson Manufacturing. In terms of land, Conrad Grayson owns a lot of land in the U.S. in terms of in the States owning many buildings and condos not just in New York, but also in Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Texas and also in Florida too. In terms of offices G.E. owns, they have offices all over the world not just in the US like LA, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Texas, Florida, but also in Washington D.C. where they have an office there or they will when they start building over there. They also have offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, London, Rome, Moscow, Frankfurt, Mexico City and they are thinking about expanding into Argentina also.

Properties Conrad owns, he has condos and mansions that he owns not just in Los Angeles, but also in New York, Texas, Detroit, Florida, but also has a ranch in Nashville where he lives most of the time, but also his real home that he lives in day in day out is based out of Los Angeles.

Subsidiaries that he owns and operates globally are Grayson International, which is his cosmetics company, Grayson Liberty Inc. which is one of his shipping companies, and he owns different oil companies too all under a drilling company called Grayson Drilling.

**Victoria Harper Grayson**

Victoria Harper Grayson's Pre-Revenge Background and Assets

Victoria Harper Grayson (Madeleine Stowe) grew up in Los Angeles as the daughter of Victor and Adelaide Harper, as Victor and Adelaide moved from New England to Los Angeles. Victoria was raised in the lap of luxury and went to the best schools like Montpelier where she rode steeplechase and was an excellent equestrian. Following a brief romance with an artist by the name of Dominic, Victoria began scheming her way to be the Queen of the Hamptons by being the personal assistant/chief party planner of the Queen of the Hamptons at the time, Elizabeth Grayson, Conrad Grayson's first wife. Victoria lured Conrad into a sordid affair and to take on her father who has been financing terrorist groups as a Grayson Global client. When Conrad divorced Elizabeth, Victoria, who didn't like Conrad's other children, manipulated him to relinquish custody of the children to Elizabeth. Victoria and Conrad married in an elaborate ceremony at Grayson Manor, where she would become the Queen of the house, and had a son, Daniel. Daughter Charlotte would be born several years later. In addition to her fledging philanthropic endeavors, Victoria went to work at Grayson Global as Conrad's Executive Assistant and participated in the money laundering scheme involving terrorists and other bad guys with Conrad and her father. The Harpers were an old moneyed family who had amassed their wealth through the slave trade in the 1800s. Victoria's father, Victor, Jr., grew up in New England as the only child of Victor Harper, Sr., and his wife, Mary Harper. Victor, Jr., built his company, Harper Electronics, by being in the software business, computers, laptops, computers, cameras, and so on before starting to expand into hardware with weapons defense and so on. Mom Adelaide's family, the Stuarts, had the bulk of their wealth in their corporation, Stuart Industries, which got their start via manufacturing in the 1900s, and then after started to expand the company into cars, and then the stock market crash came along during World War II (WWII), the they made their money even more by venturing out into other areas like oil. Like her husband, Victor, Jr., Adelaide Stuart Harper herself was an only child of Harrison and Katherine Stuart who had a New England upbringing. Victoria, in terms of art work she could own, has all sorts of art work ranging from Ancient Roman to Ancient Egyptian to Ancient Greek art, and even owns the Mona Lisa having the authentic portrait in her & her husband Conrad's home in Los Angeles and owns everything from authentic artwork to graffiti art work, and even owns her own art gallery with her husband Conrad being the prime investor of the art gallery which is based out of New York. In terms of outside assets Victoria owns she owns not just her New York art gallery but she owns other art galleries in the US preferably in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Boston, Houston, and owns her own fashion company called V Couture which is not only just a fashion company, it is also a couture magazine and owns her own jet and has her own retail outlet in Paris called Grayson Aureil. In terms of automobiles she owns several Rolls Royce's and several Bentleys and even has a Ferrari and a Lamborghini. In terms of bank accounts she shares her accounts with her husband Conrad, so everything is pretty much a joint bank account. In terms of businesses she owns, she works mostly in the cosmetics industry having her own cosmetics company called Queen Victoria Cosmetics and owns several fashion houses in Milan and in Paris the 2 main fashion capitals of the world. In terms of divisions Queen Victoria Cosmetics has, they have their manufacturing division, their beauty products services division, their beauty products division; their experimentation/beauty products design division and their men's division in terms of deodorant, soap, etc.

As for holdings Victoria has, she has holdings in several cosmetics companies around the world but mostly has holdings in car companies also like GM, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan and much more but has holdings in her husband's company of Grayson Enterprises.

Jewelry she has all sorts of pieces, the most expensive rubies and diamonds in the entire world, the finest from Belgium, and in terms of land she owns the same land that her husband does as they share the land.

And in terms of offices Queen Victoria Cosmetics and V Couture has, they have offices in Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Detroit, Washington but also are expanding soon into Las Vegas and also have offices in Paris, Rome, Milan, London, Madrid, Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Mexico City, Johannesburg, and are thinking about expanding into Moscow setting up an office there.

In terms of real estate, everything Conrad owns in terms of houses, she co-owns it, they own their houses together in the places in which I told you before about like their sprawling 24,000 square feet prized Hamptons summer beach house, Grayson Manor, which they built together, the Fifth Avenue triplex, the chalet in Aspen, the house on Fisher Island, and so on. But in terms of other beach houses, she bought one by herself in Malibu.

Aside from her shares of stock in Grayson Enterprises, Grayson Global, Harper Electronics, and Stuart Industries, she owns stock bonds. In terms of bearer bonds, she possesses Swiss bearer bonds, German bearer bonds, and French bearer bonds, for which most of her wealth accumulate from.

And in terms of subsidiaries, she has one major subsidiary, which is her charity that she started called the Victoria Grayson Charitable Foundation that is currently a global charity she owns and operates from the Hamptons and New York City.

**Grayson Global**

Grayson Global is a financial corporation, a multi-billion dollar company. Grayson Global is a conglomerate. In terms of other businesses they own, they own many telecommunications companies in Europe, but mostly in North America preferably in major markets like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Washington, Boston, Detroit, just to name a few, and holdings they have, they have holdings in a shipping magnate company by the name of Aero Venture Shipping and have investments in a magazine called In Style, and assets they own, they have their own retail chain of shopping malls in the U.S. preferably in Los Angeles called Grayson's, and subsidiaries they own, they own their own subsidiary Grayson Industries, which is a daughter company of their parent company Grayson Global. In stocks Grayson Global has, they have many stocks, especially on the stock market in car companies, such as Ford, Toyota, and Nissan, but also have Swiss bearer bonds and hold offices in any country you can expect them to have. In terms of corporate divisions/divisions/subsidiaries any you would expect them to have, and in terms of land/properties/real estate, they have many villas and ranches but have their 2 mansions in New York, including their prized summer beach house in the Hamptons, Grayson Manor, and one in Paris.

**Part One**

Flashbacks to 1986: 27 year old Hedge fund manager Conrad Grayson is hard at work in his office at the Wall Street mega corporation Grayson Global talking to a client on his big brick sized cell phone when his 22 year old mistress Victoria Elliott walks in the office with her father and a potential client, electronics magnate Victor Elliott, Jr. of the world-renowned Elliott Electronics. Victoria smiles and Conrad immediately beams.

**Conrad**: "Victoria! How are you?" Conrad approaches Victoria and gives her an affectionate peck on the cheek.

**Victoria**: "Well I have no complaints thus far".

**Conrad**: "Sir, how are you?" Conrad and Victoria's father, Victor, Jr., shakes hands while Victoria looks on.

Flash forward to 2011: 52 year old Conrad Grayson is at his prized, sprawling 24,000 square feet summer beach house, Grayson Manor, which is situated on one of the Hamptons' most coveted properties, with his divorce lawyer, Barbara Snow, negotiating with Conrad's 47 year old estranged wife, Victoria Grayson, and her divorce lawyer, Ryan Huntley. Conrad's lawyer is using the prenuptial agreement that was signed way back in 1986 as the basis for the divorce settlement. Both lawyers each put their respective client's net worth at $4.7 billion dollars, and negotiating for half of each other's assets.

**Ryan**: "My client insists on retaining Grayson manor, the most valuable piece of property in either Conrad or Victoria's personal portfolio."

**Victoria**: "And the artwork, but not the Duquesne."

**Conrad**: "The Duquesne? I bought it for you for your thirtieth birthday gala. The one you said that you couldn't bare to depart without."

**Victoria**: "Like you, it hasn't aged well."

**Barbara**: "My client is requesting half of Victoria's $4.7 billion dollar fortune, which comes out to $2.35 billion dollars.

**Ryan**: "Oh, let's not forgot that my client is seeking full custody of Charlotte."

**Conrad**: "Over my dead body!"

**Victoria**:"Conrad, you reprobate. You have no room to talk. You've been on the campaign to alienate her from me since the day she was born."

**Conrad**: "Oh, come off of it. It was you who alienated our daughter from yourself. You never could give her the same amount of affection that was afforded to our firstborn, a son."

**Victoria**: "You self-righteous SON OF A BITCH!"

**Ryan**: "With all due respect, when my client, signed it twenty five years ago, she was pregnant and did so under duress. Therefore, my client is entitled to not only Grayson manor, some artwork, her daughter, but 50% of Conrad's $4.7 billion dollar fortune, which comes out to $2.35 billion dollars. "

**Conrad** glares incredulously: "DURESS. Need I remind you all that her being my wife has been very advantageous for all, mainly her?"

**Barbara**: "Need I remind you again that my client is just as entitled to half of Victoria's $4.7 billion dollar fortune. If she gets $2.35 billion dollars from my client's end, then my client gets $2.35 billion dollars from her end as well."

Another flashback to 1986: Conrad, Victoria, and Victor are all in Conrad's Grayson Global office talking business when Conrad and Victor glanced at Victoria.

**Conrad**: "Victoria, would you excuse us, I would like to have a moment with your father alone."

**Victoria**: "Oh, of course, do you want anything, Daddy?"

**Victor**: "No, darling."

**Victoria**: "Well, I'll be in the restroom. It won't take long."

Victoria leaves.

**Victor**: "I understand that Grayson Global is in trouble, and I want to help."

**Conrad**: "How, so?"

**Victor**: "I want to buy half of your company at a very generous price. You still be running things, but I'll take a behind the scenes approach as a silent partner."

**Conrad**: "How does Victoria fit in all of this?"

**Victor**: "Well, Conrad, she's pregnant with my grandchild, and you're the father."

**Conrad**: "This can't be happening. I'm already married with children."

**Victor**: "Well, that's not my problem. My only concern is my daughter and her baby."

**Conrad**: "Considering that Victoria is pregnant with my baby, I intend to do right by her and the baby."

**Victor**: "I certainly hope you do. Because if you don't, instead of helping Grayson Global, I'll be helping it by personally putting in the final nail of its coffin, do you read me?"

**Conrad**: "PERFECTLY."

**Victor**: "Oh, by the way, if you insinuate that Victoria is a whore again, I'll be destroying more than your company."

Back to 2011

Conrad's lawyer admonishes him to remain his composure.

**Ryan**:"Look all my client wants, in addition to her share of the Grayson financial holdings, which adds up to $2.35 billion the amount Conrad will get back through the 50% of Victoria's fortune in which he is entitled to, is sole custody of her little girl, Charlotte, some artwork, and one piece of property, Grayson manor. Against my suggestions, I think she is being more than fair in these proceedings."

Third flashback to 1986: Conrad and his then-fiancée, Victoria, are having a romantic evening at the Tavern on the Green, when Conrad pulls out a box and gets down on one knee.

**Conrad**: "Victoria, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

**Victoria**: "Oh, yes, Conrad, I would be your wife."

The two embraced.

Back again to 2011

**Conrad**: "After everything that I've given up. After everything I did just for you. You owe ME!"

**Victoria** putting on a fake smile: "Isn't that supposed to be the other way around, darling?"

Victoria gives off her signature look, while Conrad pierces her with his raging eyes.


End file.
